Weighing GOP goals vs. women's health

Updated 10:16 pm, Sunday, September 9, 2012

AUSTIN — Republican Rep. Sarah Davis discounts the Democrats' idea of a GOP war on women even as the breast-cancer survivor ventures onto the frontlines of Texas' battle over women's health.

Davis spoke against new state rules for the Women's Health Program that doctors say would get between them and their patients by barring discussion of abortion.

“The rule-makers are essentially jeopardizing the viability of the very program that they are trying to create” with rules discouraging doctors' participation, said Davis, a lawyer from the Houston-area enclave of West University Place who says her cancer battle gave her a profound respect for the doctor-patient relationship.

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But Davis isn't easy to pigeonhole in the debate over women's health choices.

She last year backed banning Planned Parenthood clinics from the health program because of their affiliation to those who perform abortions, although the clinics themselves don't provide abortions. The ban already was on the books but hadn't been enforced.

Asked if she still thinks it was a good decision to back the ban, Davis said, “Oh, gosh, it's a hard question, and I think about that vote a lot. I just think that there is so much controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood that I think that was the right vote to make at the time.”

Planned Parenthood is fighting the decision, but the federal government has already said it will end its funding for the program due to the ban. So the state is planning to pick up the cost and proposing the new rules as it gets ready to take over the program.

Health care providers worry there won't be enough clinics to serve women without Planned Parenthood, but Davis takes comfort in state assurances that others will fill in the gap. She sees her stand on the rules as a way to help in that effort. According to documents from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Davis was the only GOP lawmaker by late last week to formally comment on the proposed rules.

“I just can't imagine another 32-year-old in pain and not being able to have a well woman exam,” said Davis, 36, whose cancer was discovered nearly four years ago.

Davis also went against the GOP playbook last year to vote against a bill requiring women have a sonogram before an abortion.

She said she was elected as a believer in limited government, personal freedom and individual responsibility. She opposed the federal health care law as a government intrusion, and she saw the sonogram bill the same way.

She said her stand on the sonogram measure was reinforced when she read about a 12-year-old who was reportedly raped by numerous assailants. If the girl became pregnant and her family, church or other support system thought it best for her not to have the baby, Davis said, “I can't be a part of supporting a process in which we are going to insert ... something into her already broken body.”

On abortion, Davis said she considers herself pro-life but wouldn't support overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Abortion is an issue that is so personal and so politically charged that there is no right answer that the government can ever make,” she said. “To me, the issue is just not as black and white as so many other people think that it is.”

Her Democratic opponent — Ann Johnson, another lawyer with a personal story of battling cancer — is emphasizing health care access in her campaign, saying on her website, “Texas can do better than (Gov.) Rick Perry and Sarah Davis' War on Women's Health.”

Davis said she doesn't see a war: “I don't think that the Republican Party has waged a war on women. I think that the concept of women's health is being used in some regards by both parties as some type of a political wedge issue. I am a woman in Texas, and I do not feel like there has been a war waged against me.”